Instead of using a conventional computer keyboard, some computer systems and/or interactive devices use a user input device with a small number of buttons for entering characters. For example, many computer game systems use a controller having two sets of four buttons: four cursor movement buttons and four selection buttons. To enter characters with such a controller, a character set is often displayed on the system""s display device, and a user presses the cursor movement buttons to move a cursor over a desired character to highlight the character. The user then presses one of the selection buttons to select the character. This method of character entry can be both time consuming and tedious to a user since a large number of button presses is often required to select a desired character.
To reduce the number of button presses required for character selection, U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,818 to Scott provides a character entry method in which the displayed character set is divided into groups (or xe2x80x9cquadsxe2x80x9d) of four characters. Instead of moving a cursor from character-to-character, sequential actuation of the cursor movement buttons moves a cursor from quad-to-quad. The four characters in each quad are arranged in the same pattern as the selection buttons, and the user presses the selection button that is spatially correlated with a desired letter to select the letter. U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,142 to Chang et al. describes a similar system for use with a numeric keypad of a keyboard. In Chang et al., three 3xc3x973 matrices of characters are displayed, and the nine characters in each matrix are arranged in the same pattern as the 1-9 keys of the numeric keypad. To select one of the displayed characters, the user presses the arrow keys on the keyboard to select and highlight one of the three matrices and then selects a letter in the highlighted matrix by pressing a key on the keypad that is spatially correlated with the desired letter.
While the methods described in Scott and Chang et al. can reduce the number of button presses required for character entry, multiple button presses are still required to select any character that is outside the currently-highlighted quad or matrix. There is a need, therefore, for a method and system that will further reduce the number of button presses required to select a character.
The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims.
By way of introduction, the preferred embodiments described below provide a method and system for selecting a character with a user input device comprising a plurality of buttons. In one preferred embodiment, a first plurality of characters is displayed on a display device in a pattern corresponding to a pattern of a plurality of buttons of a user input device, and a character from the first plurality of characters is selected in response to actuation of one of the plurality of buttons. In this embodiment, the number of characters displayed on the display device for selection by the user input device is less than or equal to the number of buttons in the plurality of buttons. In this way, any of the characters displayed on the display device for selection by the user input device can be selected by actuation of a single one of the plurality of buttons.
In another preferred embodiment, the above-described character selection method is used to sequentially enter a series of characters. In this embodiment, a second plurality of characters is selected from a character set at least in part in response to the character selected from the first plurality of characters. The characters in the second plurality of characters are then displayed on the display device in a pattern corresponding to the pattern of the plurality of buttons of the user input device, and a character from the second plurality of characters is selected in response to actuation of one of the plurality of buttons. In yet another preferred embodiment, a character selection method is presented for entering characters of a predetermined word.
The preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the attached drawings.